"Gazprom has requested permission from the Crimean authorities to develop oil and gas fields, Crimea's first Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev said Tuesday.

"Of course, Gazprom was the first to approach us with a proposal," RIA news quotes Temirgaliev.

The Crimea is one of the largest regions in the Black Sea in terms of production of oil and gas. 'It extracts now about 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year" Temirgaliev remarked. In 2013 production increased by 40 percent due to the opening up of the Odessa and Stormovoe fields on a shelf of the Black Sea."